I think it's time to have another meeting of the FoH as we haven't had a meeting since July and we would need to talk about a lot of thing related to the FoH as the murals on the wall, couches, library, cleaning etc..

So I thought that we could have the meeting on the 14th of September, so next Monday since we had the FoH meeting on every first Monday in a month if I know it right. What do you think of having the meeting at 7? we could have it in the action room if it is free at that time.

I took a note of some things that I think are need to be discussed:

1, Murals on the wall in the kitchen and in the café:

Magda was planning to do some murals on the kitchen's wall but she hasn't done it as the festival started and we haven't talked about it since then. But at the same time, Matias also has some ideas and plans that he'd like to do in the café and in the kicthen as well.So I think that this should be discussed with everybody at the meeting with the details ( how, when, where etc) so that everybody will more or less know what is going to happen with the space in the café so nobody will feel being left out of the decision.

2, What should the FoH cover?

is it about only the café or should it be about the whole building?

3,Library .

How can it be improved? There are many books that are not labeled and more signs are need in the café, where the other bookshelf is which is otherwise a bit broken.

4, plants and flowers:

Should we keep them in the windows? I really like having them both in the window and around the café but they reallly need help to survive the sort of rough circumstances and the lack of ... regular and sensible care. The other thing is about the flowers on the tables, I talked with Emma and she said that we can have a budget for that. How much should the budget be? should we buy flowers every week or every two weeks?

5, chairs, tables, couches:

I think that the café really misses some comfy couches, and some of the tables, and the chairs need some fixing as well. Maybe we should organise a resurrection workshop where people with good ideas and skills would give them a new shine and revitalize them. Because I think it would be nice to involve more people in how we are shaping the space in the Forest.

I started to look for some furnitures and couches on free cycle and gumtree. If I find something good, who should I connect or who is up for carrying somethings? We've got a really nice sofa in the EVS flat that we can bring to the Forest after we moved out from the Haymarket flat in the first weeks of October.

Just to say on the budget point... we are going to chat about budgets at next FWG for each working group so if you have a good idea on what you need this can help inform the decisions for the next while. No budgets are guaranteed but you can tell us what you think...

on the mural side of things , please talk to magda before doing anything . I feel this could be a foh classic , in that a project never gets finished . Things can take time ,people get frustrated and start something else and you get a clash. The major downside to this is that nobody wants to do anything in the space and people get pissed off . Its something we should trying to avoid , making a good space to work in with clear direction and support .

also another point about the main space , the shutters need to be black , at night the space is too light now that the floor is pretty bright . the space at night needs to have an intimate feel whist thru the day being bright , its a tough one to balance

kata . i really like the toilet idea . but it would be really amazing to have the public toilets done rather than the voile toilet , in that only a few would see it . Not sure on the status of the toilets at present . so it may be a good idea to do in the volli toilets to see if it works .

i guess to get old tiles , you need to be skipping alot . that needs a lot work . keeping a kean eye out for stuff . it can be done am sure .

from the term "Front of House', i would have thought the whole building.

nix mentioned a few weeks ago that no-one had been dealing with the art on the corridor walls and thus he had been arranging things personally which is where the Forest Art Festival came from.

it would be good to be sure what group deals with this kind of thing so interested parties can get involved and keep the impetus going themselves without having to go through nix who is already overworked.

I think that the café really misses some comfy couches

hear, hear!

hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku

milk wrote:it would be good to be sure what group deals with this kind of thing so interested parties can get involved and keep the impetus going themselves without having to go through nix who is already overworked.

I agree, apart from the statement that I am overworked.

...at forest I have no regular commitments. I am only involved in 1 WG (AF), I bottomline one small project (Art Studios) and I am feeling generally cool at the moment.

Someone has to be point-of-contact for artists wanting to display work at forest, outside of the gallery. I am happy to do it.

The FoH WG is gong to get strong and great and will make the place so beautiful & help many artists, we must remember that two of Forests key objectives are to * increase access to art* facilitate the development of artists’ work and skills

regards the floor in the cafe , i feel it needs a quick going over again in and around feb next year . this would be a light sanding posibly by hand and then plastered with varnish . The varnish last used can be mixed with a hardner to make it dry quicker and thus keep disruptions to the cafe to minimal . I would think a sunday night and a monday , would be all we have to close .

I think its better if we dont have the FoH meeting on MOnday cause hardly anybody can make it, so maybe next week or another time when it is more suitable to everybody.

I talked with madga and Mati as well. Mati said that he is going to do something small and quick because he wont have time to do bigger things. Magda still wants to do the walls in the kitchen but she said that if we are planning to do the lampshade or light boxes that Ryan wanted to do then it might be to much things around the kitchen, so sshe needs to know whether we want to do the light boxes or not.

Thanks for the comments! I'll try to go and collect things for the toilet. I thought that starting with the vollie toilet is better only because if the toilets downstairs are going to be rebuilded then there's no point in doing them before.

Also disabled toilet realy needs to be accessible, I was at a gig in Forest the other week (well in August) and for some reason it wasn't able to be used, so this guy in wheelchair had to be lifted downstairs. not cool.D xx

Our big brother's got no heart,
when I get my chance I'm going to punch him in the nose, in the nose, in the nose

Yes, its true. I talked with Mirja the other day and she said that an artist from New York is interested in working with the forest on the murals. Mirja is going to send me the contact details of her because it sounds really great. I thought that the walls leading to the hall from the back entrance would be a perfect space for her since those walls are all white and they are very central as everybody coming in the back entrance or just looking in can see them.

Nix, I couldn't open the files that you posted here. Can you save them in another form? or what should I use to open them? THanks! I talked with Ilaria about it and I'd like to help with it. It sounds grand.

About the meeting, I think we could have it on next MOnday at 7. What do the others think?